Kathmandu. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is scheduled to inaugurate the Bailey Bridge installed by the Nepal Army at Chuwakhola in Humla on Sunday. He is scheduled to reach Kharpu by helicopter on Sunday to inaugurate the bridge.
With the installation of this temporary bridge, simikot, the district headquarters of Humla, has been connected to the highway under the Karnali Highway, which has been under construction for nearly 30 years.
An engineering team of The Nepal Army led by fighter Kul Bahadur Ghale completed the construction of iron bridges on both sides of the river within 40 days.
Bailey Bridge installed by the Army is not a permanent bridge. Compared to the pucca bridge, the iron structures of this bridge have to be repaired regularly as the problems of erosion and rupture continue. Moreover, it has a lower carrying capacity than a concrete bridge. Therefore, according to the technicians, it is only a temporary bridge and will be connected for a short time.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers on December 29 had decided to hand over the construction of the bridge over Chuwakhola of Karnali River flowing through Kharpu of Hilsa-Simikot road section to the Nepal Army. The bridge has been constructed at Kharpunath Rural Municipality-5.
Constructed by the Nepal Army, the bailey is 52 meters long. The Government of Nepal had provided Rs 65 million for the construction of the bridge.
Recently, the Department of Roads had installed a 24.4-metre-long and five-metre-wide bailey bridge over the Bagmati River at Baguwa connecting Makawanpur and Lalitpur under Kantipath. The cost of the bridge was Rs 14 million, but the Army had installed the bailey bridge after the flood damaged the bridge last year.
According to the Nepal Army, a team of Nepal Army from the Road Division Office, Mahendranagar, had taken the iron structures of bailey bridge to the construction site through a difficult route.
The total length of the North-South Highway connecting Nepalgunj’s Rupaidia border point in south India to Hilsa border of China is 505 kilometers. The length of this highway is 268 kilometers from Khulalu of Kalikot to Hilsa of China.
